A nursery provider wants to demolish a former Victorian house to make way for a new outlet in Swinton.
Cheshire-based Kids Planet Day Nurseries bought 196 Station Road, and the next-door plot, from Salford City Council when it went on the market in June 2015.
The nursery proposes to operate weekdays between 7am and 6pm, with space for up to 132 children and up to 30 full-time staff members.
The building was last used as an occupational health and safety centre for council workers.
The five-bed Victorian property would be razed to the ground under the plans, and replaced with a car park.
On the adjacent 0.14-hectare plot would be built a part one-storey, part two-storey nursery with play areas to the rear.
Originally Kids Planet looked at moving straight in to 196 Station Road, but found the internal layout and the lack of parking to be significant issues.
The house occupies a large corner plot at the junction of Lowry Drive and Station Road.
To the rear are the Lawrence Lowry Court flats and sheltered housing run by the City West Housing Trust.
It was built in around 1900 and originally used as a home for the manager of the nearby Lowry Mill on Lees Street.
Later it was converted to a pupil referral unit, then to its current office use.
The plans show there’ll be new access for cars from the busy Station Road.
While congestion from parents picking up and dropping off children are a concern, the nursery says “drop off times will vary…so are likely [to] be spread over a 2 hour period…at the start and end of the day.
“It is also the experience of the applicant in other nurseries that a significant number of children will be dropped off on foot again lessening the parking load.”
Kids Planet currently have two other branches locally, at a former police station in Higher Broughton and on Eccles Old Road in Salford.
The business was originally set up by CEO Clare Roberts and her father, Chairman John Hoban.
Kids Planet opened its first nursery in Widnes in 2008 and now has 17 branches across north west England, including in Crewe, Liverpool, Prestwich, Sale, Warrington and Southport.
It currently employs 296 people.
In 2015 the business had a turnover of £6.9 million with pre-tax profits of £1.24 million.
The application is expected to be decided by Tuesday 28 June 2016.
